Housing targets are set by central government and do not reflect local needs, particularly for locally affordable housing for families. . Central government has a number of powers to ensure compliance by local planning authorities. There is insufficient viable brownfield land available to build the housing required by central government. Unless central government reduces the demands it is placing on Swale new housing will have to be built on green fields.

The Faversham Society is opposed to all large-scale housing developments on green field land adjacent to the beautiful mediaeval market town of Faversham. This includes proposals from the Duchy of Cornwall and two other major developers to build 3,500 houses on productive farmland to the South-East of the town.  These along with smaller proposed developments are set to increase the town’s population by more than a third and put an unsustainable strain on already overloaded services and congested roads. The addition of a possible further 5000 cars will put impossible pressure on limited town-centre car parks and the motorway junction adjacent to the site is already subject to tailbacks of up to a mile. These developments are universally opposed by the people of Faversham as an existential threat to the very nature of the town and its rural setting.